Lola’s April Adventures
April was an INSANELY busy month for me. Like, wow! I blinked and it was gone. I didn’t mean or plan for it to be that packed. It just kind of happened. Did some interesting things, though, so I thought I’d share. =)
Tennessee Trip
My side of the family lives in Tennessee (I currently live in Nebraska). While I do like NE, I miss the beauty of Tennessee’s forests and hills. There’s just so much green down there. And the landscape isn’t flat. *grins* Midwesterners will know what I’m talking about. It’s VERY flat here! Hello, cornfields!
Anyway, I stayed with my mom, and her place is kind of out in the country in a sort of woodsy area. I was sitting on the couch talking to her one morning, and I noticed this cute little wreath hanging on her back door. I said, “Hey, I like you wreath.”
She says, “Thanks… what’s that hanging off it?”
“Oh. I thought it was a bow.” I get up to go look. “Um, Mom… that’s a bigass snake.”
She. Flipped. Out.
So what do two brave, independent Southern women do? She calls up my stepdad to come kill it. While she screams, like, the entire time. Funny thing is, she had been opening that door up all morning to let the dog out. Probably with the snake just chilling there, hanging out. No pun intended. *grins*
Anyway, she promptly took down the wreath and the hanger after that, too freaked out to leave them up.
And I ended up with a cute little wreath on my front door here in Nebraska. =) Sans, snake.
Heavy Metal Concert
Okay, I’m not much of a metal fan. I like good music, and if it’s catchy, I’ll listen to anything. It’s been a long time since my hubby or I have been to a concert, and neither one of us had ever been to a heavy metal show.
There were four bands in town–Motionless in White, Gemini Syndrome, Avatar, and In This Moment, who was the headliner (and female-fronted! Girl power!). We were there to see In This Moment (you might have heard some of their songs… I’ll list them below), but we both really liked Gemini Syndrome. All the bands had killer stage presence and put on a great show, but Avatar and Motionless in White were a bit too heavy for our tastes. *smiles*
The place was packed. It was in an old auditorium downtown, where there’s standing room only. In This Moment is a pretty big name in the metal scene, so I was surprised they chose such a small venue (which sold out, no surprise). But I’ve also heard that a lot of musicians prefer those smaller venues because it feels more intimate. It brings them closer to the audience. The drummer for Gemini Syndrome even snapped a picture of the crowd and bowed in thanks before leaving the stage. Apparently, he’s been taking pictures of each crowd everywhere they’ve been and posting it to their Facebook page, which is sweet. =)
Here’s some songs we liked that I thought you might like too. (You might have even heard some of them.)
Gemini Syndrome
In This Moment
Jury Duty
Soon as I got back from Tennessee, my group got summoned for jury duty. I’ve never been on a jury, and I’ve never been summoned, so this was a new experience for me.
They summoned a big crowd–120-something potential jurors for 3 trials. I guess the court system had been backed up due to the Easter holidays.
Anyway, we all got to the court house and went through orientation before being assigned to a courtroom. Turns out, the case I was there for was a first degree murder trial for a cold case from about seven or eight years ago. Turns out they’d already tried the defendant once, but the judge had to declare a mistrial when the defense found out a detective had been withholding evidence. When a mistrial is declared, the original jury is thrown out and a new one is summoned to take its place.
I’ve never gotten to see how this side of the law worked, and I only know one person who’s served on a jury. But that was in Texas, so maybe it’s a bit different there. Anyway, there were about sixty of us in that courtroom, all potential jurors. We became numbers, and they randomly selected forty to be questioned by the attorneys (both prosecution and defense). As they whittled down the main pool, they’d replace them with one of the alternates, who weren’t being questioned, until they finally picked 14 jurors to serve on the trial. I wasn’t one of the original forty who were grilled by the attorneys (seriously, you learn a LOT about these random strangers), and my number was never called as a replacement. But I still had to sit there in case they needed me. This went on for two straight days (remember, I work graveyard, so I got extra sleepy in the afternoon *smiles*) before they pulled together a jury (a good one, in my opinion) and dismissed the rest of us.
In a way, I’m saddened I didn’t get to see this through to the end. I’m a storyteller, and I’d like to know how the story ends by actually being there to hear it. Guess I’ll settle for reading it in the papers… if they publish anything else about it. It was an interesting, insightful experience, and one I’m glad I got to do, despite the inconvenience.
Those are the highlights from last month. Oh, and lots of rain. Good grief, lots and lots of rain. Now, hopefully, on to warmer, dryer weather this month. =)
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Anyone have any fun adventures to share? Anyone else ever been to a metal show or served on a jury? Is anyone terrified of snakes like my poor mom? lol
